RC Cars (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.3 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Alex Navarro
• Reviewed on: 12/19/2003
• Released on: 12/11/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: RC Cars (PC) Review

Earlier this year, developer Creat Studios released an RC racing game for the PlayStation 2 called Smash Cars. It was a pleasant surprise, featuring some simple yet effective racing mechanics, a nice selection of game modes, pretty impressive graphics, and an always-pleasing budget price tag. Now, a few months after Smash Cars' release, Creat has another RC racing game to its name in RC Cars for the PC. Despite the name change and a switch from previous publisher Metro3D to Whiptail Interactive, RC Cars is an almost exact duplicate of Smash Cars, though with a number of the PS2 game's previous modes and features stripped-out in favor of a more streamlined, PC-centric interface and an online multiplayer mode. Whatever Creat's reasoning may be for the changes made in bringing RC Cars to the PC, the unfortunate truth is that much of what made its original RC racing game so much fun has sadly been lost in translation.

RC Cars features three different RC car types and 10 total tracks. Cars start out fairly simplistic, but you can upgrade them by playing the game's championship mode. Championship is essentially a progressive mode through every track in the game. Winning races earns you cash prizes, which you can use to upgrade your car's engine, speed boost, and tires. Each track also has a required buy-in fee, so you'll have to keep your funds at a certain level to be able to progress through the mode. Furthermore, the game features a basic quick race mode where you can play a single race with any of the available cars or tracks. The ghost race mode pits you up against ghost versions of yourself in previous races. Additionally, there's a multiplayer mode with two-player split-screen for a single computer and an online offering for up to six racers. Presumably, the online mode involves a lobby that you can create or join--if started by another player. Unfortunately, during our weeklong efforts to find some online competition in RC Cars, no one ever popped up to race against. Though we'd like to assume the online play works properly, the fact that nobody showed up online in the week following the game's release, coupled with a number of mode omissions made to RC Cars (which further separate it from its PS2 counterpart), like the highly entertaining "stunt" and "dark horse" race modes, really limits the game's appeal.

Despite the lack of available play modes, RC Cars is still pretty fun from a gameplay standpoint. One of RC Cars' best aspects is simply how intuitively it plays and handles. Your basic controls involve an accelerator, brake, hand brake, jump button, and turbo button. The jump button is useful for jumping over various gaps and objects that you will frequently encounter in each level, while the turbo button, as you might expect, gives you a temporary speed burst as you hold it down. How long your turbo boost lasts depends on how often you use it, as a meter near your speedometer drops progressively the longer you hold down the button. The turbo boost does recharge when you're not using it. The game itself handles very well, and the car physics are surprisingly well done, though they're not always terribly realistic. Furthermore, we found that both a controller and a standard keyboard control scheme are equally playable, so regardless of what style of play you're accustomed to, you'll be able to pick up RC Cars pretty easily.

RC Cars' other most appealing aspect is its tracks. The tracks in the game are modeled after real-world environments, though they're not the sort of places where you'd typically race RC cars. You'll find yourself in a number of different locales, such as an abandoned mine, a tropical beach in some sort of third-world country, and even a military base. Every environment has its own roster of interactive elements that will attempt to screw you up as you race. For instance, the military base features soldiers who wander around while guarding the facility. If you get too close, they'll start shooting at you, and if you're hit, you'll crash. You'll also encounter dogs that will try to eat you, beachgoers who will kick you, and even cars and trucks that you'll have to drive underneath and around to avoid being crushed.

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